What retailers need to know before buying bulk ammonite fossils

Buying bulk ammonite fossil pieces is a smart idea for any rock shop retailer, but it helps to know what you’re buying.  This way, when your customers ask about a certain type of ammonite fossil you will have all the information they need.

The ribbed, spiral formed shells of ammonites are a very attractive collector’s item.  Did you know that these creatures lived under the sea about 250 million years ago?  It’s hard to believe you can hold something in your hand that is a tactile record of a sea creature from that long ago.  According to paleontologists, ammonites went away around the same time as the dinosaurs.

Because some of these fossils resemble a ram’s horn, they are aptly named.  The word ammonite comes from the Greek “ram-horned” god called Ammon.  Biologically, ammonites are cephalopods, a group of predators related to squid, nautilus and octopus.

Ammonite fossils are a geological record a species that flourished during the Triassic Period, an era that ended 206 million years ago.  They also were found in the Jurassic Period, and some even lived during the Cretaceous Period.  Scientific evidence suggests that these creatures lived on plankton and grew very rapidly, with female ammonites often growing to be four times larger than males.  As the animal grew, new protective chambers were formed, each of which allowed the ammonite to maintain or regulate its buoyancy.

The patterns often seen on ammonite fossils are known as Sutures.  These mark where the outer wall of the shell meets the septum, and they are very useful to collectors in determining the exact species of the ammonite.

Buying bulk ammonite fossils will allow you to get a wide selection of collector’s fossils at a much more competitive price.  The wider the selection in your retail rock shop or store, the more ammonite fossils you will sell.